One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant elephant ears is to look at the USDA zone info for Hartwell.

Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

Frost tolerance for elephant ears:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant elephant ears until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Hartwell is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your elephant ears indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Hartwell. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hartwell is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Hartwell you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your elephant ears in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hartwell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Hartwell

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Hartwell.